Steve Mills and his wife have one daughter. They previously owned two coffee/ice cream shops, currently operate an internet sales company and teach classes, but his primary job involves the paper industry worldwide. Hobbies and interests lie in gardening, photography, recorded music and of course, their pets.

Getting back to basics in the garden

The next time you are planting some seeds, get your hands in the dirt and think about the fact that you are then doing what people did back as far as the first person to ever sow a seed.

I had that thought yesterday as I planted some winter veggies and it was an uplifting thought that I was doing the same as my father. We may have slightly different tools, but eventually it all comes down to placing that seed in the ground.

I know, the big corporate farmer may never get his/her hands dirty and that is sad in a way. They lost the connection to the land. Maybe they have a home garden or at least I hope they do.

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When I till the garden, there is a certain smell that comes from the soil and it brings me back to the days when I used to walk behind my father as he was preparing our garden and pick up the worms for fishing.

The rest of tending the garden was not as much fun as a child but I also have warm memories of walking through it to find a super sweet tomato to eat right there. No chemicals to worry about, just a super delicious treat.

One of my favorite pictures of our daughter at the age of 4 years old was her coming out of the garden with her very own tomato. Even earlier she knew the difference between a home grown cherry tomato and a commercially grown one.

She always loved to eat the cherry tomatoes from any salad we ordered in a restaurant, but when she ran into one of the "plastic" ones grown for shipping and storage, she would put it back with a frown.

-- Posted by stevemills on Tue, Oct 23, 2012, at 5:49 AM

My kids love helping in the garden from the plowing to the planting to the harvesting. It's something that we have done together for the past few years and hope to continue doing it. I remember when we had our first garden, my youngest who was 5 at the time, would come in from playing and have tomato seeds on her face. She loves tomatoes and would start picking them off the vines and eating them. Needless to say, I had to put up a fence around the garden so the tomatoes would last for everyone else to eat.

You can really tell the difference in the taste of produce from growing them at home vs buying them from commercial companies.

-- Posted by PrpleHze on Tue, Oct 23, 2012, at 9:41 AM

No doubt about the taste. When they grow things for shipping qualities or to be long lasting, something else suffers.